Blender

Blender, a renowned threat actor known for its involvement in the cybersecurity landscape, has recently been under scrutiny due to its alleged role in facilitating illegal transactions. Last year, the US imposed sanctions on crypto mixers Tornado Cash and Blender, targeting them as part of a broader crackdown on Lazarus Group options such as Bitcoin-based mixers Blender and Sinbad. The shift back to decentralized mixers like Blender is believed to be a reaction to law enforcement actions against large-scale services like Sinbad and Blender. In a significant development, Blender, along with Tornado Cash, is suspected of assisting North Korean threat actors in laundering $475m from an attack on Axie Infinity, funds that are likely to be channeled into the country's weapons and nuclear programs. The Blender Foundation, associated with the open-source 3D creation suite, not the threat actor, found itself at the center of a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that temporarily disrupted its server operations. The origins of the attack remain unknown, but the Blender Foundation promptly acknowledged the incident through an official statement. Despite the challenge posed by the attack, the Blender community, renowned for its resilience and collaborative spirit, quickly mobilized to address the situation head-on. In the wake of these events, six other foundations - Apache, Blender, OpenSSL, PHP, Python, and Rust - initiated a Brussels-based working group tasked with developing common specifications for secure software development. Drawing on their extensive open-source experience, they aim to establish standards for coordinated disclosure, peer review, and release processes. The Blender Foundation used its communication channels to keep its community informed, demonstrating transparency during the crisis and underscoring the commitment of the open-source community to protect its assets.